Design of a Thermal Neutron Beam for a New Neutron Imaging Facility at Tehran Research Reactor

A new neutron imaging facility will be built around the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). The TRR is an open pool light water moderated5 MW research reactor with six beam tubes. The neutron energy spectrum near the reactor core at the entrance of the beam tube was measured by the foil activation method using the SAND-II code and calculated by the MCNP Monte Carlo code. There was a good similarity between calculated and simulated spectra. The principal component of this facility is its neutron collimator. The collimator is a beam-forming assembly which determines the geometric properties of the beam. In addition, it may contain filters to modify the energy spectrum or to reduce the gamma ray content of the beam. The optimum thickness of filters, the position of the aperture and other details of the neutron collimator were calculated using MCNP Monte Carlo simulations. In this design, the L/D ratio of this facility had the value of 120. The thermal neutron flux at the image plane was about 7.8×106 n/cm2.s and n/γ ratio about 106 n/cm2.μSv.